Calling to be respected: Moon cycle power

 

We as women are privileged to have a natural cycle that gives us the ability to understand two important aspects of life. We can engage in activities that are constructive, creative and expanding and we can sense when we are called to internalize, reflect and  renew ourselves.

What society wants from women

Modern society encourages the productive and fast-paced life. Many women have been trapped into the superwoman role forgetting (or wanting to forget), the other side of the coin.  We have now reached the insanity of accepting contraceptive pills to completely eliminate our periods. All types of non-sense theories are given to women to make them yet another slave of production of the modern society. This attitude needs to be understood from the roots, it needs to be reflected and it needs to create an unshakeable and personal position of respect and integrity.

Time to go inside

Healthy women have always bled monthly with no harm to the body. In many cultures and across time, women withdrew from everyday life during their moon cycle, ceasing all social activities and intercourse with men. They retired, meditated and performed certain rites. In that sacred seclusion, free from worries and others’ psychic energies, women had the opportunity to use the moon cycle as a catalyst to bring their energies inward, and to renew themselves. This process may sound simple, but this was the moment when they gained and increased consciousness, devotion and perspective of themselves in relationship to nature.  The understanding of this internal cycle from an intuitive perspective gives women a deep wisdom. It was women’s vast moon-based wisdom and understanding of these life cycles that provided the foundation for agriculture, astronomy and even mathematics.

From sacred to taboo

Over time, women have lost the real meaning of menstrual blood: a symbol of regeneration or rebirth. Instead, women’s blood has gradually become redefined by men or churches as something contaminated instead of sacred, and the self-imposed seclusion has become an exclusion from the community. We have put much guilt on our bleeding and our moon cycle, it has become a taboo that is now crushing the vital feminine force to a concept of illness and inconvenience. Women have placed upon themselves a prohibitory law that has dehumanized and isolated them. They have opened the door for society’s work force, religion, and men’s desires to mutate them and degenerate coming generations.

What the moon cycle does for women

Our moon cycle is a sacred cycle on many levels. At the physical level, menstrual bleeding releases excess stored iron, which is a risk factor to cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes. This without doubt puts women before menopause in a lower percentage to have heart attacks or strokes. The peak release of hormones during the menstrual cycle is important for the health of the breasts and bones, especially among the development of adolescents.  At the psychological level this is a time where woman learns how to stop her countless activities, worries and burden, and instead she can access her emotional process and bring those insights into the family renewal.

The flow is spiritually and socially supporting

According to the level of awakening of the woman, this time can be used to exercise surrendering, devotion and prayer. It is a time where meditations can be so sweet, personal, poetic and soft. The natural weakness of the body at this time opens the door for the spirit to be concrete, present and experienced (yogis have to fast and perform many austerities to reach that level of experience).

At the social level, we can give the family a break--all we need is to take that day off and reduce expectations, and to show that this is a time where you welcome that warm bowl of soup or that foot rub. The family can learn that nourishing aspect and that sense of service by taking care of you.

The sweet surrender to our moon cycle is a celebration that can rescue the grace and wisdom of nature in us; it will increase the collective acceptance of women, and it will teach men the hidden force of our changeable nature. Most of all, it will give that grain of wisdom and regeneration to future generations--so bombarded now with dishonor, shame and guilt--of this dance between our bodies and the universal law of renewal.